Jaguars general manager Gene Smith has shown he is willing to take chances in the NFL Draft.

Gene Smith still remembers the advice he received as a young scout from Jack Butler, the former head of the scouting combine, Blesto, Inc.

"He told me one time, 'Gene, if you're going to be right or you're going to be wrong, make sure it is your own opinion,' " Smith said.

In two years as the general manager of the Jaguars, Smith has shown he's not afraid to form opinions and act on them.

He is willing to go against the conventional wisdom, whether it's drafting a player in the first round much higher than many scouts had him ranked (Tyson Alualu) or taking players from small schools such as Central Arkansas (Larry Hart) or Murray State (Austen Lane).

As Smith prepares for the start of his third draft Thursday night, he has a solid body of work.

All 15 of the players he drafted with the Jaguars are expected to be in training camp, assuming there is a training camp.

"One thing about my boss is that he doesn't waver. That's just the way he lives his life," said Terry McDonough, the team's director of player personnel. "If he has a conviction, he doesn't really care about what other people think. I think you get yourself in trouble if you start worrying about what outside influences have to say about what you're doing to build a championship football team."

The first two players he drafted in 2009, Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton, figure to be bookend offensive tackles for the next decade. Smith got a starting defensive tackle (Terrance Knighton) and cornerback (Derek Cox) with his next two choices in the third round. And Smith's fifth pick that year, Mike Thomas, is starting at wide receiver.

To get five starters is one draft makes it a draft to remember.

Last year, the Jaguars had only six picks and two of them (defensive tackle D'Anthony Smith and punt returner Scotty McGee) wound up on injured reserve, so it is too early to judge that draft.

Alualu started all 16 games at defensive tackle while playing through injuries.

Smith believes in drafting solid citizens with good character.

"We've done it one way [before he became GM], and now we're doing it a different way. I think you earn your reputation throughout your life. This is our professional life. I know what is better, and you can take it to business, don't just keep it in the arena of sport. Take it into business," Smith said.

"People that have higher character perform or maximize their talents at a greater level. And I don't think it's anything other than that. Character counts."

Smith is a low-key type who appears to like to stay in the background. He is all about work. He tends to be the first person in the building and the last to leave at night.

There is a lot of speculation that the Jaguars will take Purdue defensive end Ryan Kerrigan with the 16th overall pick Thursday.

Smith doesn't tip his hand, so nobody outside the organization knows if he truly likes Kerrigan as a football player, but draft pundits have noticed that Kerrigan fits the Smith mold - a co-captain and team leader with high character who goes all out on every play.

"He's what a lot of people are looking for," Smith said about Kerrigan. "He's just one of many, so it makes my job a lot easier when we are stacking our draft board when you have a lot of choices."

Jason LaCanfora of the NFL Network was lavish recently in his praise of Smith.

"I love the way he operates, sticking to his philosophy and being willing to make deals for players, regardless of what the reaction might be," LaCanfora said.

Smith said it helps to have a little luck, but he believes in his system.

"I think if you're satisfied with what you've done, then I don't know you are improving," Smith said.

Gene will pick someone, no one has ever heard of and the fans will say who? The jags will go out on the field and lose games and the fans will yell boo! The jags will again choke and drop out of the playoffs, and the fans will again smell poo! Whiney weaver will be laughing at all of you!
Gene will say great, repeat, repeat, repeat!

Yeah, my money would be on Pouncey as well. Gene loves the guys in the trenches and Pouncey could potentially fill two roles for that offensive line - that's the kind of security that I think Gene looks for in a first round selection. If not him, it seems to me that there are a number of DE's that would fit well with the new-look Jaguars.

Personally, I'd be surprised if the selection were a QB, because of the ones that I've seen, none of them appear to be a Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco type that is immediately NFL ready (and that includes Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert).

OK, enough of the we should take so and so, and I want so and so, who do you think the pick will actually be, with all the D-Line talk...
I say if Pouncey is there Gene takes him, if not it'll be a shocker with Locker

GShady28...Kudos to you !!!! BroncoFanasof2010 has been spewing this kind of uneduacted, non fact finding garbage ever since the Jags passed on Tebow last year. Wonder what will happen with BroncoFanasof2010, when the Broncos draft a QB this year and TT is once again dreaming of his glory days from the sidelines?